Bottle-feeding machine.



E. O. MILLER.

BOTTLE FEEDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 21, 1911.

1,1 06-,88Q, Patented Aug. 11,1914.

3 SHEETSSHEET 1 wi/lmwwo 5] W00 wfo z E. G. MILLER.

BOTTLE FEEDING MACHINE APPLICATION FILED NOV.21,1911.

Lwfigig ih Patented Aug. 11,1914.

E. C. MILLER.

BOTTLE FEEDING MACHINE.

APPLIUATION FILED NOV. 21, 1911.

1,106,884. Patented Aug.11,1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ESEGK C. Il/IILLER, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOH.

COMPANY, A CORPORATION 015 MAINE.

BOTTLE-FEEDING MACHINE.

mosses.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Essex 6.11/IILLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle Feeding Machines, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to bottle feeding appliances and more particularly to'a novel capping machine, and has for one of its objects the provision of means for expeditiously transferring bottles, or the like, from some convenient point over to a principal operating part, which in apreferred form of device is a capping head, together with coacting mechanism for removing said bottles from said transferring means; the handling .of the bottles being rapid and being furthermore accomplished substantially without possibility of breakage. i

In the preferred form of my invention herein exemplified, the transferring elements are rotarily mounted as far as practicable; which renders the mechanism very efficient in action.

.ferred form of myinvention.

Referring tosaid drawings: Figure 1 is a horizontal section through a capping ma.- chine, taken on line I'I of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a side eievation of said machine with portions thereof broken away for purposes of illustration. Fig. 3 is a section taken on line III1I[ of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a detail section of the yokes, yoke plate and adjoining parts. Fig. 5 is afragmentary detail of the main table. Fig. 6 is a detail section taken on line V IVI of Fig. 1, the section being viewed in the direction of the arrow.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 21, 1911.

l fit in? Serial 3 10. 661,455.

shaft 7, which is driver by means of a pulley 8. Reciprocation of shaft- 3 corres )ondingly raises and lowers the capping hea 9, which latter may be provided with the usual hopper 10 containing caps which are fed to the capping throat in a well known manner. Upwardly projecting from the base '1 in front of the capping head 9 is a stationary upright 11 which may be secured to the base by means of bolts 12, or the like, and Within which is a shaft 13, the lower extremity of which carries a'wheel 14, which forms part of a step by step gear. The contour of this wheel. is best shown in Fig. 3, wherein it will be observed that a series of radial slots 15 extend inwardly from the periphery of the wheel toward the shaft 13, said slots being disposed around said periphery at spaced intervals. Between slots 15 are arcuate depressions 16, the purpose of which will be hereinafter noted. To one side of shaft as viewed in Fig. 3, is a spindle 1.7 which .s disposed in pal'allelism with the shaft 13 and carries upon the upper extremity thereof a crank arm 18 provided with a roller 19, which roller is adapted to enter and neatly engage the walls of slots 15. Crank ;8 has a lip 20 upstanding from the edge of the circular hub thereof, and a line drawn through the axis of the shaft or spindle 17 and through the axis of the roller 19 will intersect this lip substantially in the middle of the length thereo It is obvious that rotation of the spindle 17 will efiect a .step by step ad vanccinent of wheel 16, since roller 19 will engage a slot 15 and will thereby drive wheel 14 around a determined distance andjwill emerge from said slot pre-' \these gears being mounted upon said spindle,

and the other being secured to the threaded extremity of a ,counter-shaft 22, which extends parallel to the shaft 7, above referred to.

For convenience of illustration shaft 22 has been broken away partly in Fig. 2.

The rear extremity of this shaft carries av gear 23 which is in mesh with the gear 24 mounted upon shaft 7; and as these two gears are preferably of the-same diameter, it is evident that for every revolution of the shaft 7 the shaft 13 will advance one step. In this instance the shaft 7 must make eight revolutions in order to effect a complete revolution of shaft 13. Mounted upon the upper extremity of the shaft 13 is a yoke plate. or disk 25, best shown in Figs. land 4. I prefer to reduce the upper extremity of shaft 13 and to place thereon a collar 26 which is seated against the shoulder formed by the reduction in the diameter of the shaft, and the plate or disk 25 is pressed firmly into engagement with this collar 26 by means of a nut 27, mounted upon the threaded end 28 of'shaft 13. In order to prevent inadvertent displacement of the disk 25 with respect to collar 26 a dowel 29 may be provided, and the collar 26 from which the dowel projects preferably has a forced fit with the shaft 13. The yokes 30 carried by yoke plate 25 will hence invariably be disposed in proper relationship to the capping head when the latter is caused to descend. There are eight of these yokes in the present instance, shaped substantially as shown in Figs. 1 and 4. It is obvious of course, that these elements may be of any suitable configuration adapted to receive and convey bottles, or the like, over the surface r of the table 31, but I prefer to form them in the shape of double yokes, the respective upper and lower portions of which are substantially U-shaped, and the arms of the Us each having offset portions 32. The said portions 32 of adjoining yokes project toward each other and serve to'prevent the inadvertent admission of a bottle into any other part of the rotary structure than the bottle receiving pockets provided by the yokes. Each ofthese yokes is provided with a radially directed and bifurcated lug 33, whiehis adapted for engagement with the plate 25 and is secured thereto in any suit able manner, as by means of bolts 34:. The

be raised or lowered upon the upright 11,

by means of a screw 35. To this end the hub 36 of the table which receives the upright is provided with. a lug 37 adapted for the reception of said screw anda bracket 38' is secured below and in alinement with said lug, to the side of the standard 11.

Screw 35 is threaded through this bracket and may be locked against inadvertent displacement therein by means of a set screw 39. When the screw has been set the table 31 may be raised or loweredby applying a span-wrench to thenut 40, which is in entherearound and in fact projects therebe- V yond through a somewhat -over ninety degree angle; and while the contour of the table is generally circular, there is a later-' ally projecting. portion 4 1, which also is provided with an upstanding flange upon either side thereof, the said flanges being respectively designated 15 and 46. The inner end of a flange 46 is arcuate in conformity with flange 43, and the table is recesscd between the opposed extremities of flanges 13 and 16, as at 417 recess 47 being preferably directly in front ofthe standard 2. The small table 48 of a suitable compensating mechanism 19 normally substantially fills recess 47, but ,may be driven downwardly in a well known manner when the mechanism is in operation. lar construction of the compensating mechanism will'not be herein further considered since mechanisms of this character are well known and since said mechanism per 86 forms no part of the present invention. Adjustably mounted upon the upright 11 is a bracket 50, the'arm of which extends laterally away from said upright, and the said arm is provided at its outer extremity with The particuliq a bearing 51 in which is mounted a shaft 52.

The lower extremity of this shaft cartries' a yoke-shaped member 53, to which is. 1on

nected a cylinder 54; the cylinder 54'be ng attached in this instance to the member 53 by means of a universal joint connection 55. Within the cylinder '54 isa short rod 56 which preferably'is splined to said cylinder, the key-way being shown at 57. The lower extremity of rod 56 is connected to a yoke-shaped member 58 similar to that designated 53 by the universal joint connection] 59. Member 58 is mounted uponthe upper extremity of a short shaft 60 which is journaled in a suitable gear casing 61 secured to j the base 1. This casing serves to inclose a chain of gears, one gear 62 being secured to I i the lower extremity of shaft 60, and being modest in mesh with a Pinion 63, which in turn is in engagement with a similar pinion 6 1, the latter being driven by a third pinion 65. The ratio of speed reduction between shafts 17 and 60, it may here be noted, is in this instance two to one.

Upon the upper extremity of the shaft 52 is a plate 66, the hub of which bears against the upper face of the bearing 51, and is sup: ported thereby. It is obvious that as the gear 17 is rotated eight times to advance the. yoke plate through one revolution, disk 66 will be rotated four times. All auxiliary bracket 6'4 issecured to one side of the bear ing 51, andth'is bracket in turn carries a small feed table 68, the upper surface of which isin a'plane with the upper surface of the disk 66. Immediately above the member 53 on the shaft 52 is a cam 69, the contour of. which is best shown in dotted hides in Fig.1. The link 70 is slotted at one extremity 71 thereof for the reception of shaft 52; link'70 being. guided thereby; and

the said link carries a roller 72 adapted for engagement with thecam 69. The outer extremity of link 70 is connected to a crank 73 mounted upon the lower extremity of a shaft 74, which is journaled in the table 68 and projects therethrough; and the upper extremity of this shaft carries-a finger 75, the outer end of 1 ch upturned as at 76 for engagement ...,ht. :car arm 77 of a latch, broadly designated 7 8. This latch is pivotally mounted at 79 upon plate 68. The plate 68 is provided with a flange 80 which serves as a guide for the bottles; a portion of this flange extending around apart of the arcuate recess in the plate 68 which receives the disk 66. This curved section of said flange is slotted, as at 81, for the reception of the bottle engaging portion 82 of the latch 78, and the end 83 of this slot 81 serves as a stop' for the latch in the direction j ,in which it is normally urged by the spring tlefilling table 87 Thexfillin'g table is in this instance circular and adapted for rotationvin the direction of the arrow disposed thereon. Around the periphery of this table areua series. of somewhat peculiarly shaped ribs or projections 88, the interior'half or two-thirds of said projections beingadapted tosubstantially conform to the surface of a bottle 89, which may be placed thereagainst,

whilathe outer extremity of each of said so projections is preferably straight, as shown. In addition to the yielding guide 86 and guide-rib 80 I prefer to provide also a fixed guide 90 r of substantially. similar configura- -,*1;tl011. tothe said guides 86 and 80, considered as a whole; the several curved portions of the guide 90 paralleling these parts and being s aced away therefrom substantially equi-distantly to form a passage 91.

The inner end of the plate 68 may be provided with a bracket92 which may be secured thereto by means of screws 93, or the like. This bracket is recessed as at 94: for the reception of the pivotal ends 95 of a series of preferably curved fingers 96. F ingers 96 are secured to the bracket 92 by means of a pin 97, and the outer extremities 98 of the said fingers are adapted to rest within a recess 99 formed in the correspondinlg edge of the table 31. It is evident that w ion the table 31 is raised or lowered with respect to the disk 66, in order to accommodate bottlesof different heights, the fingers 96 will be canted in one direction; or the other, and since the said fingers are free to swing independently of each other, their general surface will be somewhat warped when the ends 98 thereof are so raised or lowered. To explain this action more fully let us assume that the fingers 96 are all connected together in a single plate and that the table 31 has been lowered with respect to the disk 66. In this case the extremity 98 of the outermost finger'would be in contact with plate 31, but the other extr'emities98 would be raised in varying amounts from the bottom of the recess 99.

"he flange 43 has the extremity thereof which is nearest the standard 2 enlarged for the reception of a pin 100, and a lever 101 is mounted upon this pin, so that the extremity thereof which is nearest the standard may swing inwardly toward the recess 17. This extremity is provided with a cushion or pad 102 which is adapted for engagement with the surface of a bottle; the pad being preferably of some such material as leather, so that all liability of breakage of bottles due tocontact therewith is substantially obviated. The fiange i3 is also laterally slotted as at 103, the portion of this flange above the slot being broken away in Fig. 1, for convenience of illustration. Slot 103 permits of the projection of a lever 104 therethrough; the inwardly projecting end of the said lever also being adapted for engagement with bottles being delivered thereagainst by the rotation of the yoke frame. Both lever 104 and lever 101 are spring pressed, the former being pressed into its bottle engaging position by means of a light spring 105, while the latter is similarly urged into bottle gripping position by means'of a rather strong spring 106. Upon the projection 44 of the table 31 is a stationary bottle switching member 107, the nose 108 of which projec'ts between the upper and lower portions of the yokes. It may here be noted also that the bottle engaging portions ofthe levers 101 and 104, likewise normally project between said yoke portions. Mounted to one side of member 107 is a finger 109, piv- 115, the ratio of teeth in the saidwheels 114 and 115 being preferably one to two.

Pinion 115 is mounted upon the extremity of a shaft 116, which is journaled in a bracket 117, the said bracket being secured upon the under side of the main table. The

other extremity of shaft 116 carries a sprocket wheel l18, around which passes a" chain 119, said chain being driven from a sprocket pinion 120 mounted on shaft 22..

The table 31 is at 121. The operation of the mechanism will now be described. Assuming that'the filler table 87 is'being driven at a uniform rate in the direction of the arrow thereupon and that the pulley 8 is driven in' the direction of the preferably apertured as arrow indicated thereon; the head 9 will be' reciprocated through the instrumentality of shai't 7, disk 6, link 1, and reciprocating shaft 3, once for every revolution of the pnlley 8. The shaft 22 will'be rotated in the viewed from above, for every revolution of direction opposite shatt'Z, but in synchronism therewith, since the gears 23,Q-'l,have a one to one atio, and this shaft in turn will drive the spindle 17 clockwise, as viewed from above. This rotates the crank 18 in the direct-ion of the arrow adjacent thereto, causing the roller 19 thereof. to successively engage the slots 15 of the wheel 14. The step by step motion thus imparted to wheel l-t is transmitted to the bottle frame, which comprises the yokcs 30 and their supporting plate and rotates this structure through fortyfive degrees, counterclockwise, as

V the pulley 8. Simultaneously the shaft 0 is revolutions of the pulley.

-" which have been disposed within the curved rotated at half the speed of shaft 17 by reason of the train of gears thcrcbetween, so that disk 66 is rotated once during every two The bottles 89 projections 88 are carried around by the filler table until they engage the yielding guide 86. The spring 86 which normally ,controls this guide is sufficiently strong to prevent the latter from swinging away from its determined position, except in an emerably breakage of the bottles, would ensue;

Q'As guide 86 is angularly disposed for the' gency whcre the progress of the bottles through the machine has become stopped, in which event it is obvious, of course, that it guide 86 did not yield, damage, and probmost part it wipes the, bottles delivered thereagainst successively in toward passage 91. It cannot, however, drive them completely onto the table 68; but the projection or rib 88 next following does so drive the bottle which has been displaced from the pocket in advance, completely onto the table 68 by means of the preferably strai'ghtpon tion of the said rib or projection. Succeeding bottles will crowd those thus previously driven onto the said table through passage 91 ontothe rotating disk 66, and as the latter is continuously driven such bottles will be immediately advanced against the crooked "end of the arm 82 of latch 78. As this latch is normally held by its spring in the position in which it is shoivn in ;Fig. 1,; further advance of the bottles is impeded thereby.

Twiceinevery. revolution, however, [of the plate thinness of the cam (39 urges roller 72 to itsoutermost position, and 'this vaction causes link 70. to correspondingly displace crank arms 73 and ,75, and to thereby swing latch 7-8 at stated intervals Thusthe latch 7 8 will be swung, ifv catn Gabeproperlydisposed, just before.- a bottle, rerciw'ing pocket in the rotaryiranie has becninoved into adjacency to said latchQ The swinging of the latch therefore'perlnits a bottle, after one has been disposed iii adjacencythereto, to be driven around by the plate 66 until the said bottle has been moved into the pocket provided therefor in the frame. Immediately thereafter latch 78 snaps to and impedes progress of succeeding bottles until'the he'xt bottle receiving pocket approaches it. If a bottle has not been rotated by plate 66 quite into contact with arm 82 before the latch starts to open, and thereby happens to be t pinched more or less between the elbow of the arm 82 and the adjacent end of the guide 90, no harm will result, since the bottle will either be swept into its pocket by the closing action of the latch, or it willbe driven back upon plate 66, to be there held to await the approach of the next pocket. Only one other contingency need be con sidered, and that is vwhen the bottle has become so positioned with respect to the/elbow of the latch and the adjacent extremity of the guideQO that'the closure of the latch a merely clamps the .bottle therebetweem Here again, however, no harmful action can occur, since the approach ng nose of'the time at the outside of the bottle receiving pocket witl'merelydiive such a bottle back so that the latch may thereupon further close and hold itback upon plate (36. Bottles so held, it will be understood, are slid over the surface of the rotating disk until free to advance therewith by the opening of the latch in the manner'described. The plate 68 is adjusted with respect to the'filler table so that the bottles may be wiped off into passage 91 as described, by raising or loweringwhether the table 81, be somewhat above or somewhat below the level of table (38,bottles may be advanced thereupon from'disk'66 by reason of the fingers- 96, whose action has previously been considered, "Bottles forced by the action of disk 66 and-latch 78, into the pockets in the rotary frame are carried around by a step by step motion until they are successively disposed upon the table 48 of the compensating mechanism, at which point they are capped in the usual manner by means of the capping head 9; the bottles, of course,bing stationary while the capping head is applying caps thereto,

Bottles traversing the fingers 96 and table 31 are held within the pockets in the carrying frame by means of the flanges 43. If, however, suchbottles have not been driven, by the action of plate 66, as far into the bottle receiving pockets as they should be in order to have the cap applied properly thereto, or are misplaced from any other cause, such bottles are wiped back radially into said pockets by the wiping finger or le- Ver 104;. Sprin 105 is only sufliciently strong to just eect such displacement of the bottles. As the bottles, however, are de-' livered upon the same table 48 the clamping finger or lever 101 presses them firmly into their pockets and thereby centers them with respect to the capping head. The wiping lever 104 is irovided merely to force the bottles Well ack into the pockets before they encounter the clamping lever. It is, of course, obvious, that under certain conditions the wipin lever may be eliminated. Bottles leaving the compensating'table 48 are carried around into engagement with the nose 108 of the member 107, which wipes them radially out from the pockets in which they have been carried and drives them successive-ly into' engagement with the finger 109. This finger serves to steady their motion and prevents them from upsetting. Pressure of the bottles against finger 109 causes the latter to swing clockwise, as viewed in Fig. 1;, about its PlVOlJfil axis until "the bottle which presses against the said finger has been received into one of the de .pressions in the periphery of the star wheel 112. This wheel is driven at such a rate that one of the pockets therein will invariably be ready to receive a bottle ejected from a pocket in the yoke trame. The bottles so disposed between the prongs of the star wheel are swept around thereby until they encounter the wiping member 122,

Which forces them out'of engagement with the said wheel so that they merely accumulate upon the extension 44 of thetable 3'1.

The star wheel112, it may be noted, is 'pref-' erably. formed in two partsas shpwn in Fig.1

6, the star shaped bodies of said parts being spaced from each other by means of their hubs, and the member 122 projects into the space between said bodies, as shown. The latch-cam drive preferably comprises the telescoping cylinder 54 and rod 56, constructed 1n the manner described, since thereby the table68 may be raised, or loweredin' order to make it correspond with the filling=table, without affecting said drive.

Having ,described my invention, I claim:

"= 1'. The mechanism for handling bottles x which comprises a rotary structure having pockets adapted for the reception of bottles, means for rotating said structure, a normally stationary member'below said structure and constituting a fioor over which the bottles in said pockets are moved,means for delivering bottles to said pockets, and means for adjusting said member vertically with respect to said means.

2. The mechanism for handling bottles which comprises a rotary structure having pockets adapted for the reception of bottles, means for rotating said structure, a normally stationary member below said struc-v ture and constituting a floor over which the bottles in said pockets are moved, means for delivering bottles to said pockets, means for adjusting said member vertically with respect to said bottle delivering means, and means for supporting said bottles when moving onto. said member from said delivering means.

V 3. The mechanism for handling bottles which comprises a rotary structure having pockets adapted for the reception of bottles,

means for rotating said structure, a normally stationary member below said structure and constituting a floor over which the bottles in said pockets are moved, means for delivering bottles to said pockets, means for adjusting said member ,vertically with respect to said bottle delivering means, and a plurality of elements movable with respect to each other for supporting said bottles when moving onto said member from said delivering means.

4. The mechanism for handling bottles which comprises a rotary structure having pockets adapted for the reception of bottles, means for rotating said structure, a normally stationary member below said structure and constituting a floor over which the bottles in said pockets are moved, means for delivering bottles to said pockets, means for adjusting said member vertically with respect to said bottle delivering means, and a plurality of pivoted fingers movable with re spect toeach other for supporting said bottles when moving. onto'said member from said delivering means.

. 5. In a bottle capping machine, a horizontel rotary bottle carrier in combination with a table beneath the same and over which the ILOES bottles slide when moved by the carrier, saidthereof which is traversed by the bottles, betuble being vertically adjustable-and a secing adjustable to difierent inclinations, said tion thereof which is traversed by the botsection being composed of a plurality of ties, being adjustable to different inclinaarcuate strips, as set forth. I 5 tions for the purpose set forth. In witness whereof, Lsubscribe my signa- 1 6. In a bottle capping machine, a horizonture, in the presence of two witnesses. tal rotary bottle carrier in combination with ESECK C. MILLER. a table beneath the same and over which the Witnesses:

bottles slide when moved by the carrier, said WALDO M. CHAPIN, 10 table being vertically adjustable andasection WIICLI 'M G. LAY. 

